[Libguestfs] [libnbd PATCH] docs: Mention that nbd_close is not thread-safe

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 10:56:02AM +0200, Martin Kletzander wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 25, 2019 at 09:41:01AM +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> >On Wed, Jul 24, 2019 at 03:14:28PM -0500, Eric Blake wrote:
> >>Closing the handle in one thread while another thread is locked causes
> >>undefined behavior (as closing does not obtain a lock, and can cause
> >>use-after-free or other nasty problems to the thread that does own the
> >>lock).  However, it is not sensible to try and obtain a lock in
> >>nbd_close, as POSIX says that it is also undefined for any other
> >>thread to wait on a mutex that has already been destroyed.  Therefore,
> >>we don't need to change our code, but merely remind users that
> >>nbd_close is not safe until all other uses of the handle have ceased.
> >>---
> >>
> >> generator/generator | 3 ++-
> >> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >>
> >>diff --git a/generator/generator b/generator/generator
> >>index 896ad2a..bdd8fd7 100755
> >>--- a/generator/generator
> >>+++ b/generator/generator
> >>@@ -3532,7 +3532,8 @@ for how to get further details of the error.
> >> Closes the handle and frees any associated resources.  The final
> >> status of any command that has not been retired (whether by
> >> C<nbd_aio_command_completed> or by a low-level completion callback
> >>-returning C<1>) is lost.
> >>+returning C<1>) is lost.  This function is not safe to call while
> >>+any other thread is still using any C<nbd_*> API on the same handle.
> >>
> >> =head1 GETTING THE LATEST ERROR MESSAGE IN THE THREAD
> >
> >ACK.
> >
> >Yes it's not safe to call nbd_close until all other uses of
> >the same handle from any other thread are over.
> >
> 
> Would it be too much of a trouble to add reference counting and give users a way
> to "copy" of the handle?  It wouldn't be a copy, but merely an increment on the
> reference counter.  Or is it not worth doing that?

Reference counting is a huge PITA as well as making it much harder to
correctly write bindings in other languages, so I'd greatly prefer not
to do this.

Rich.

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